TG Batman 1: Kill The Batman
by jimruggeri
Summary: Another in my TG superhero series, check out the rest of them. Here the story is in a different continuity to Joker's Wild, so they're really just both potential first issues for a story about Batman having his gender swapped. Please enjoy and please review it means a lot, and it only takes a second to post a comment!


Kill The Batman

"How about you try telling me again what you're trying to do?"

The Gangster yelled down from the gangplank. Ace Chemicals was never a stable building under the best of circumstances, but ever since the Joker had levelled most of the outer structure, more and more had been crumbling every day. While the legitimate corporation and its employees has evacuated a few weeks beforehand, that hadn't stopped their less antsy counterparts from moving in. Kidnapping a high ranking technological oncologist had drawn the eyes of not just the authorities, but the one they feared the most too.

That was why they were holed up in the inner refinery, where no one could see the light of the machinery. Doctor Liu had grown up on the west coast, and had never experienced much of the turmoil that usually engulfed Gotham or Metropolis every few years, but he had assumed it would be safe. A brilliant technician and biologist, he was showcasing a revolutionary new cancer treatment at the Waynetech Expo when his limo had gone missing. The police were scouring the streets, and all the signs were pointing toward a supervillain intervention. Sometimes though, it's just the regular criminals wanting their piece of the action.

"That's the thing with shit Slim," the enforcer on the ground laughed. "It always runs downhill."

"You're right there."

"We got the cops out looking for the Black Mask, or Harvey Two Faces, wasting time up at Arkham interrogaratin' the Joker. We both know how well that's gonna go. We hole up here a while, let the Batman tire himself out on the freaks, then we move into position. We do our thing, some other sucker gets the heat. Best thing that ever happened for crime was the Bat bringing all these freaks to grab all the attention."

"You talk too much," his boss smiled, twirling a cigar between his fingers. "Charlie check on our guest why don't you, wouldn't want him going bye bye after all the work we put in."

Charlie sighed, he didn't sign up for babysitting the world's whiniest scientist. Doctor Liu had been a pain ever since they'd moved him into the building. While they had been trying to wring out of him what it was his machine did, he kept explaining it in such specialised terms that they still had no idea. Something about genes, that was the extent of their understanding. As such, his treatment had degraded from impolite to downright vicious, they thought he was holding back.

Bruised and broken against the concrete floor of the refinery, Doctor Liu gasped in the burning air. This place never quite stopped being industrial, even with the machinery turned off and the raw materials long gone. The chemicals stayed in the air, infecting the lungs and turning a fresh breeze into hot ash. His wounds were deep, a puncture wound festering on his left leg, and more broken teeth than he could currently count. But as Charlie gave him the once over, it was agreed he was still very much alive.

"Hey slick," the mobster guffawed, tidying up his pin striped collar. The heat in here was doing bloody murder to the material. "You wanna try going over this again with me?"

He tossed a blade back and forth between his hands with the precision of an expert. This was someone who knew how to use a knife.

"I'm just thinking maybe there's something you missed."

Across the room, looking completely out of place, was a white device no larger than a typical forearm. It was distinctly medial in appearance, and didn't fit with the dust and ash of the factory's former usage. Charlie picked it up.

"There's quite a weight to this Doc, makes me think it's expensive. If I learned one thing in my time it's heavy things is expensive. Maybe you can see your way to elaboratin?"

The Doctor turned over on the ground. The things they'd done to him, he wouldn't have dreamed of subjecting his worst enemy that torment. He was done performing like a dancing monkey. He was a surgeon, an inventor, a prize winner. They were going to have to kill him, or let him go. There was no other way.

"You see," Charlie crept closer, discarding the device with some measured care, but nevertheless allowing it to clunk onto the ground. "You see, you're making me feel like we ain't friends no more. I thought we were friends slick. I'm just saying that cos, you see what I do to my friends…"

The knife held an inch from Liu's eye.

"Imagine what I do to my enemies."

His body relented. The Doctor cried out for a moment with shock.

"Ok, ok. I'll try again, I'll try."

And with that, the knife was gone, and so was Charlie's argument face. He was all smiles again, picking up his good buddy with a single arm, and sitting him down on a work surface. The device was retrieved and brought over for another demonstration.

"Talk."

Doctor Liu examined the controls, they'd been messing with it on their own, his two captors, and he hoped against hope that they'd not broken the thing. Some scratching on the plastic plating, and one of the danger lights wasn't working, but aside from that the damage seemed to be cosmetic. He took another deep breath, waiting for a punch to come. They were impatient these men, impulsive, dangerous. His time was running out. Explaining the same thing to them again and again wasn't doing much, but it was at least worth one more try.

"The device is a ion propelled gene splicing device…"

A blank look.

"It's like a shotgun but for healing."

Charlie smiled a gummy grin. He only had a couple teeth left.

"Now that's more like it. Go on smart guy."

Liu put the device on properly, it slid up his arm, and his hand curled around a clasp on the inside. It fit like a gauntlet, but one that ended in a hollow container. The best way he'd described it over the phone to the patent board was a white version of Mega Man's buster cannon. It was as lightweight as possible, but did contain volatile elements and a sophisticated computer system, so numerous safeguards packed the case tight.

"Cancer, you know how it works?"

Charlie shook his head.

"Do you know how cells work?"

"Oh, I seen enough cells in my time buddy."

What was the point? If he was speaking to someone with even a basic idea of how biology worked then he could explain in layman's terms what the machine was and how it worked. But these guys were more dumb than they looked, so there wasn't even anywhere he could begin.

"I'm sorry, but I don't-"

"Doc, I'm a simple man with a simple occupation. I take things from point A, and then distribute them to minors at point B. This is new to the both of us. So just try me, and you never know, I won't get stabby."

There was the knife again, it came and went totally at his will.

"You don't need both of those eyes to work it do you?"

The past few days had been the worst of his life. His wife had warned him against coming to Gotham. Its lawless reputation had the US government almost disowning the place. But he had to put his trust in people. Fundamentally, deep down, he believed that everyone was good, that everyone had different reasons for why they did what they did, but no one thought of themselves as the bad guy. It was all for a reason. And, when it's all for a reason, that means he could reason with that person, there was a logic to that thought he was missing at this point. Gotham, it was just evil.

"Your body is made of billions of tiny compartments called cells-"

He stopped to be stared at blankly again, but Charlie was following so far.

"I ain't stupid, I get it."

"And each cell contains a certain amount of genetic code. Like a book of instructions telling your body how to run itself. Now sometimes, this information is incorrectly processed. Have you ever found yourself reading the same sentence over and over again when you're halfway through a book?"

Charlie rubbed his forehead with the butt of a gun that had appeared from nowhere.

"Well Doc, to be honest witcha, I ain't much for reading."

That was obvious, Liu should have known that from the beginning.

"But it's the same principle… Idea. Your body reads this information incorrectly, and starts to run itself wrong. This is cancer, so say the instruction is to make one more cell, the body reads that as make one cell quickly, and then it reads the next cell and that one says make more too. Eventually it's got more than it knows what to deal with."

"OK, kinda like we're at right now."

"I suppose. What this machine does, is reprogram, or change, the information in the cells, to stop the body doing the action causing the cancer."

A slap to the back of his head, lighter than before, but it still took him off his feet. Liu hit the ground with a thump, skidding on the rough surface.

"Why didn't you say it like that before?"

Talk about friends. Liu closed his eyes, letting denial wash over him. He was back in the harbour now, letting the wind wash away the aches and pains, the dirt and the smoke from his scorched skin. He was back with Delilah and the pugs, he was late for work but he didn't care.

Back to reality.

Charlie was wearing the device now, pointing it as he would a gun.

"Want me to let you in on a little secret Doc?"

Liu really didn't want him to.

"This thing here, this is my ticket to the big leagues. You got Joker, Two Face, Penguin, the top of the top, the big bads, but they got no vision. They play this game, make their money, get banged up, sit on their asses in Arkham for a year or two, then back out and it starts again. It's time wastin'. These guys attract a certain kind of criminal, in a class of their own, and they attract a certain kinda hero too. Me, I put up with the cops, maybe a Robin if he's feelin particularly down on his luck. But those guys, they have superheroes after them. Day in, day out. No wonder this whole world is going crazy."

"Crazy…" Liu smiled. That was an enticing prospect at that moment.

"Me and Slim got a good thing going, we got a plan, and best of all, we've been smart about this. We're not going to be another bullet in the chamber, another turn on this wheel. We've seen too many guys coming through for that. With you as our new partner, we're going to do something no one's ever managed before. Nothing fancy, quick and clean. Then we run this town."

"What are you going to do?" He asked with a combination of fear and fascination. These guys might have been dumb, but they'd gotten this far without so much as a hitch. They might have a good chance after all.

"Well ain't you gettin talkative?"

Liu lowered his head in fear.

"Doc, hey, I thought we were bonding? Come on, no tears.

He helped the Doctor up to his feet, and sat him back down on a stool. Aiming the device straight at his head, Charlie's face hardened.

"Liu, you're a part of a big operation. Something larger than either of us. But soon we're going to do something simple. We're going to kill the Batman."

Charlie thought there was weight to his words, and in a fashion there was. But what occupied more of Liu's attentions was the loud yelp coming from the adjoining room. Clanking up on the balcony, and then a dreadful silence.

"You know what Charlie?" A gruffness breathed. "You do talk too much."

The black fist came out of nowhere, and smashed right into the device, sending it down onto the ground, breaking apart. Salvation in the ugliest form, Liu could still feel the relief. It was Batman, he was there to save him.

Charlie didn't put up much of a fight, the knife that had so deftly been thrown back and forth was thrust away in one smooth movement. The Dark Knight dealt with that assault as a lion batting away a fly. An annoyance. Nothing. The gun was next, held with power and weight and meaning. Those white eyes, flashes of hard memory. An alley. Pearls. He twisted the wrist, breaking the bone, sawing through soft sinews of tissue, he was impotent now. But not without the gun going off. Three shots as it rolled on the ground.

The first embedded itself in the supporting wall, flying through crumbling masonry and finally stopping in the belly of a great steel beast. A tanker for processing chemicals, the thick resistance sent the slug tinkling limply onto the floor.

The second ripped into flesh, crushed bone, and then stopped still inside. Doctor Liu never felt a thing, until the blood started to pour. Straight through his left lung, stopping in his shoulder muscle. It was like a hard punch in the gut, he'd forgotten the feeling, before he let gravity take hold. His body splayed out on the table as the hero leapt over.

Charlie was screaming, but it was the silence that was the most disturbing. No sound from the mouth of the doctor, nothing except a gurgling. Blood filling the empty space, air forcing itself in less and less. Batman tried his best, he put Liu in the recovery position, working without thought, every movement as rehearsed as an actor on the stage. But he missed the third shot, and where its journey had ended.

A tick. Then a spurt.

The device on the ground was leaking as much fluid as its creator. But the computer systems, now compromised, hadn't been built to deal with such pressure. Radioactive isotopes had been forced into closer proximity than nature had willed, and the jolt of proceeding energy was focused into an almighty blast. The Caped Crusader took the brunt as the ionised energy collided with his back. Coded genetic memory flooded his system, corruption on a scale as massive as the city he vowed to protect. Fighting back unconsciousness, he climbed back up onto his feet, just before the repercussions began.

A sickening snap as his spine straightened as an arrow, forcing him into an upright position. Every muscle burned acidic, his skin bubbled and burst, blisters and boils and tumours building on top of one another, red scar tissue, scabbing and sickly sore covered him in an instant. The scream began. Charlie didn't even realise he was running until he was on the bridge off the island. Slim had been forgotten, but he wouldn't forget much else about what he'd seen in that room.

The threads of the costume broke and tore, convulsing muscle at the peak of physical fitness turned the Bat's body from a scalpel into a rolling juggernaut. His face was equally covered by the burning, raw, acute flame. The pain indescribable, but nothing more than he'd experienced in that alley.

"It will be over soon," Liu choked, wasting valuable breath, and time.

But he was right. The naked body came to a complete stop, the platelets and thick scars forming a chrysalis. It had been the first complete human trial, a complete success. A tear rolled down the Doctor's face.

A rife crack rang through the jagged exterior of former skin. Audible and sickening, but what was produced from within was anything but. Pink, fresh, alive, new. A tiny hand crept from the cocoon, tearing pained from the remains. The outline of Batman, a huge, hard, wiry, Atlas, remained behind, but what stood up was something mirrored and paradoxical. It was a young girl, not older than twenty, with a look of hell on her face. In the smoking air of the factory, she coughed delicately. The vision of youth and beauty, of what the world should have been, stood in the ashes of the world that was. She was completely bald, aside from whisps of blonde tendrils coating some of her scalp. Her eyes were empty, shock most likely, and her mouth was open wide. Jaw dropped.

Liu would have enjoyed her nakedness were he not in dire straights. But she had come out exactly as he had predicted.

Batman, former Batman, came around without letting the sheer depth of her transformation take hold. That was for later, now she had a life to save, and it could be her own.

"Doctor, talk."

The voice was so small and distant, so incongruous with the surroundings. But Liu did his best.

"My machine…" The coughing was too painful now, but he pressed on. "We needed a blueprint to work from. My niece… Rose. Batman, the energy was only supposed to be compressed down to a tiny area. You… You shouldn't be alive."

"Let's not worry about me," she said, regaining her training. "The GCPD is en route, you'll have the best medical…"

"No," Liu smiled. "It's been too long, I've lost… I've lost too much."

"Doctor, hang on," Bruce pleaded. He, she, couldn't be stuck like this.

"This is just the first step," Liu was lost in his mind now. "Please take the next."

And he was gone. Sirens in the distance, no time to waste. Bruce scooped up the remaining parts of her utility belt, and what she could find of the machine, and grappled up high into the rafters. There was no way out, but she had ways of going unseen. Then home, then the lab, then a way. There had to be a way.

The Batmobile could be summoned as soon as the heat passed. The next step, even she didn't know.


End file.
